Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages, Vol. 31: Five Phonological Studies

Outline of Phonemes

Consonants

labial alveolar velar glottal

stops p t U ">

[p b]

frlc r s h

86 Workpapers In Papua New Guinea Languages

labial alveolar velar glottal

nasal an
vibrant f

[r 1]
semlvow • y
t> v]

Vowels

front central baclc

high i u

■Id C GO

[c a] [o o]

3. Interpretation

3.1. The status of Items which may be either consonant or vowel

Syllable patterns which occur in Hlyewe are as follows:

V

/o/

[•o]

'negative prohibitive'

cv

/nc/

C'ne]

'you'

/tu/

[•tu]

'first'

3.1.1. [i] and [u] are interpreted as vowels for they carry the peak of
syllabiclty.

/Inl/ ['l-nl] 'tail'

/ancrc/ ['u.ne.'le] 'breadfruit tree'

3.1.2. [w] and [y] semivowels are interpreted as consonants for the
following reasons:

1. they are distinct from /u/ and /I/ in that they are non syllabic,
have slight friction and are never a unit of stress placement.

2. Being non-syllabic the semivowels parallel the occurrence of other
consonants .

/mcmc/ ['we. 'we] 'betelnut tree'

/iyape/ [i.'ya.pcl 'name'
/ycsl/ [»ye.sl] 'fireplace'

3.1.3. tb] is interpreted as a consonant because it fills only C positions
in the CV patterns, and is never a unit of syllabiclty or stress placement.

/haru/ ['ha.ru] 'reptile'

/tahe/ C'ta.hG] 'skin, outside covering'

3.2. The status of items which may be either sequence or unit

3.2.1. Vowel sequences [qJ], [ej], [qJ]. [<ui]. and [qji] are Interpreted as
single phonetic complex nuclei. See syllable level.

87

Reasons supporting this decision are as follows:

1. They bear one placement of stress.

2. They have equal length as a syllable with a single vowel.

3. There are no final consonants in the language.

4. There are no non-suspect W or CW syllable patterns.

examples of /ol/

/ai/ [-Qj]
/■alyu/ [BaJ • 'yu]
/sarapai/ [ "so .ro. ' pqj ]

examples of /el/

'sharp'

'kind of reptile"

'kind of tree'

/eiye/
/uweite/
/■cnci /

["eJ -yc]
[u. 'weJ .te]
[■G. "neJ ]

examples of /ol/

/oirai/
/kohoi/

[•qJ-'IqJ]
[ko. 'hQj ]

' armband '
'kind of tree'
•kind of fish'

' came down '
' cough '

'grandfather'
'kind of tree'
'kind of tree'

examples of /au/

/ouwe/ ['oil. kg]
/noutare/ [n<ui'to.|e]
/kaaiyau/ [ 'ka .mi . ■ yqji]

examples of /ou/ - to data examples have not been found word initially

/sou/ t'sQji] 'frog'

/pcscrouKc/ [ 'pc -se . ■ iQii .wc] 'kind of bird'

3.2.2 Glottal stop is Interpreted as a consonant, because it parallels the
occurrence of other consonants. Glottal however has not been found to occur
initially, but only word medially.

/ro'u/ ['lo.'u] 'red, ripe fruit"
/ahita'o/ [a . ' hi • to . "'o] 'lid, top'

' ED: Forms like this could also be analysed as having a simple vowel
followed by a semivowel, with the off-glide being Inserted by a rule
similar to the one discussed In section 8.4. There are apparently no
contrasts between VSV and VGSV (S=semivowel, G=off-glide) . This would alsc
help explain the fact that /y/'s seem to occur predominantly after front
vowels, while /w/'s occur after back vowels.

88 Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages

4. Description of Phonemes

4.1. Consonants

/d t k/ Voiceless unaspirated stops occur word initially and medially.
Bilabial [p] fluctuates word medially in noncontrastlve free variation
with [b], a voiced bilabial unaspirated stop, in somespeakers .

/papu/ ['pa.pu] 'inside'
/apou/ [a.'bcui] - [a.'pqji] 'like this'

/toune/ ['toii.nc] 'woman'
/sate/ ['sQ.to] 'here'

/karou karou/ [ka.'roii ka.'roii] 'wretched, useless'
/lyako/ [l.'ya.ko] 'dance'

/•?/ [9] Voiceless unaspirated glottal stop occurs word medially.

/so'l/ ['sa.'l] 'water'
/foro'o/ [■f3.l3.">o] 'dry'

/f s h/ Voiceless fricatives, occur word Initially and medially.

/fc/ [Te] 'pig'

/peflne/ [pe'fl.nc] 'true'

/senorepc/ [sc . 'no. re .*pe] 'grass'
/waso/ ['no. so] ' 'insect'

/hi/ Chi] 'down below'

/ahoma/ ['a.ho.'na] 'no'

/■ n/ Voiced nasals, occur word initially and word medially.

/■al/ ['maJ] 'mother'

/oBo/ ['o.mo] 'village, hill'

/nau/ ['n<ui] 'sago'

/toune/ ['iQji.ne] 'woman'

/r/ [f] Voiced alveolar flapped vibrant

[1] Voiced alveolar flapped lateral occurs word medially and initially
in occasional non-contrastive free variation.

/pou masc/ [ ' f qji'mase] - ['Iqji 'masc] 'hungry'
/erasl/ [e.'ra.si] - [a. 'la. si] 'large, great'

/«r y/ Voiced semivowels, occur word initially and word medially, [v],
voiced labio-dental fricative, occurs very occasionally in
non-contrastive variation with [w]. To date only found to occur in a
small set of Interrogative words.

Sanlyo Hiyewe 89

/mcmc/ [■«€.■■€] 'betelnuf

/moma'>l/ [mo . 'wa .'i ] 'grub'

/cKcroi/ ['e-wG. ■ laJ ] - ['cvc. 'loJ] 'who?'

/ya«c/ ['ya.BG] 'month'
/riycwc/ [■Il.ye.'wc] 'yesterday'

4.2. Vowels

/i/ [i] Voiced high close front unrounded vocold occurs word initially,
medially and finally.

/ipo/ fi.po] 'bush, jungle'

/enltc/ C'c.'ni.te] 'wound'
/ini/ ["ini] 'tail'

/e/ [c] Voiced mid close front unrounded vocoid occurs word initially,
medially and finally.
[a] Voiced mid close central unrounded vocoid, occurs as a
non-contrastive variation of [e].

/cnc/ [-cnc] 'sago jelly'

/■crcse/ ['wG.le.'sc] - [ 'wa . Ic . ' se] 'all, everyone'

When /c/ is followed by /I/ in the complex vowel nucleus /cl/, this /e/
vowel becomes more like [e], the voiced mid front close unrounded
vocoid .

/q/ [a] Voiced low open central unrounded vocoid occurs word initially,
medially and finally.

/anou/ [o.'xui] 'forbidden'
/oBcrame/ [ ' a.«c . ' ro .»€] 'clear'
/ncifa/ ['neJ.fo] 'long ago'

/u/ [u] Voiced high close back rounded vocoid occurs word initially,
medially and finally.

/u/ ['u] 'sickness'

/■ohu/ [na.'hu] 'limbum basket'
/nohuwc/ [na.'hu.wc] 'married couple'

/o/ [o] Voiced mid close back rounded vocoid occurs before bilablals and
word finally.
[o] Voiced low close back rounded vocoid occurs elsewhere.

/oso/ ['3. so] 'small'

/otowe/ ['3. to. "we] 'sago thatch'

/sore/ ['SQ.lo] 'upriver'

/opoiyc/ [o.'pQj.ye] 'cook with hot stones

/one/ i'D.nc] 'banana'

Very occasionally /ai/ occurs as a non-contrastive variant of /cl/.

/ciwane/ CO-'wo-Kc] - [aJ.'»a.i»e] 'with, enough'

90 Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages

4.3. Supra-segmental items

4.3.1. Pitch

To date, on word level two basic relative pitches have been observed
high and low, and no contrasts have been found. High pitch occurs on
stressed syllables, low on unstressed syllables, except in the last
syllable of a sentence where the final syllable, if stressed, also occurs
with low pitch.

The standard pitch and stress pattern for a word is found when the
word does not occur finally in a phonological phrase. Phonological phrase
Intonation overrides the standard pitch and stress on word level .

4.3.2. Lengthening of vowels

This occurs for emphasis, e.g.:
/erasi/ [e.'lo-.si] 'big'

4.3.3. Stress

To date no minimal pair contrast has been found. Some generalisations
that seem to hold most of the time have been found (see section 6.2), but
no principle has been discovered to account for all the occurrences of
stress. Therefore the phonemic status of stress is uncertain.

5. Distribution

5.1. Consonant

There are no consonant clusters in Saniyo Hlyewe.

5.2. Distribution of CV patterns

The syllable consists of a single vowel as nucleus with an optional
consonant onset. The following CV patterns occur in the syllable:

V /u/ 'sickness'
/al/ 'sharp'

CV /hi/ 'down below'
/you/ 'dog'

6. The Phonological Word

6.1. Distribution of CV patterns in the phonological word

The pattern V occurs only word initially. CV occurs word initially,
medially and finally.

V /a.ne/ "I, me'

Sanlyo Hlyewe '^

CV /pa.pu/ 'Inside'
/wi .ya.wi/ 'work'

The phonological word may consist of from one to five syllables, when
unaffixed, and according to the number of syllables they are characterised
by different stress patterns.

V /oi/ 'sharp'

V.CV /a.nc/ 'I. me'

V.CV.CV /o.pe.rl/ 'tomorrow'

V.CV.CV.CV /a.mcra.me/ 'clear'

CV /pi/ 'tooth'

CV.CV /ya.mc/ 'month'

CV.CV.CV /to.pi.yc/ 'stone'

CV.CV. CV.CV /sc.na.rc .pc/ 'grass'

CV.CV. CV.CV.CV /ke.rcsl .yo.nc/ 'kind of vine'

6.2. Stress patterns in the phonological word

Where there is more than one stress in a word, one of these is primary
and the other is secondary, marked here by '» ' .

6.2.1. Monosyllabic words carry one primary stress

/ru/ ['lu] 'man'

/nau/ ['noji] 'sago'

6.2.2. Bisyllabic Words

There are strong vowels and weak vowels, and strong ones usually bear
the heavier stress. There is a strong tendency in bisyllabic words for the
stress to fall on the stronger of the two vowels or on the the first of the
vowels if they are both identical. Only a few examples have been found
where this is not so.

The hierarchy of strong and weak vowels is as follows:

/a/ is strongest, then /i/, /u/, /o/, /c/.

Where /i/ and /a/ occur in the same bisyllabic word the stress falls on the
first vowel in the word, whether /I/ or /c/. Where a double vowel nucleus
occurs in a bisyllabic word, the stress usually falls on it.'

' ED: The general principle seems to be that given the word-final sequence
VCV(CV)#, the first syllable receives primary stress unless the second is
'stronger' than the first. Secondary stress is assigned to alternate
syllables both preceding and following the syllable with primary stress.
According to the author, this accounts for over 80* of all forms. The
other 20* apparently includes loan words, compounds, and so on.

92

Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages

6.2.2.1. Blsyl lablc words
on the second syllables.

/■oto/
/hire/
/hotc/
/■enl/

/■OBO/

/Inl/

/seitl/

[■■a.»to]
fhl .*lc]
[■ho.^tc]
[•■e.»ni]
['■o.»«o]
i.*nl]

[

[*se.

stress on the first syllable, secondary stress

' head '

'on top, above'

•egg'

'man'

' pawpaw '

'tall'

'grass skirt'

6.2.2.2. Blsyllablic words - stress on the second syllable:

/amou/

/erel/

/■Oku/

/kohol/

/no'u/

la.'
[C
[■o.
[ko.

■(Ui]

'ku]
hQj]

[no. "'u]

'forbidden'
'pangal torch'
'owl'
' cough '
'noise'

6.2.3. Trisyllabic words

There are two stress patterns possible on these words.

6.2.3.1. Stress on the middle syllable. There is a strong tendency for the
stressed vowel to be higher in the hierarchy spoken of in bisyllablc words
than the final vowel In the same word.'

/nlhorl/
/ter ipe/
/ncaalyc/
/ahlpl/
/■owo'l/

[nl . "ha.rl ]
[te. 'rl .pe]
[ne. 'mal .yc]
Ca.'hI.pi]
[■o. 'ma. ''I ]

'face'

'handle'

'white cockatoo'

'mouth'

' grub '

6.2.3.2 Stress on the first and final syllable. Primary stress is on the
first, and secondary stress Is on the final syllable. There Is a tendency
for the vowel bearing primary stress to be higher in the vowel hierarchy
than the vowel bearing secondary stress.

/oplyc/
/ronahi /
/taplye/
/aiaesi /

[ 'a.w^ •* -ye]
[' lo.»ia.»hl ]
[■to.pl .»ye]
['qJ •■e.*si ]

' furry mammal '

'firewood'

'stone'

'kind of snake'

6.2.4. Quadrisyllable Words

Fewer words belong to this group than the previous three groups. Two
stress patterns are found. ^

ED: On the basis of the generalisation made in footnote 2, the crucial
factor in stress assignment here should be the relative strength of the
first and second syllable. The relative strength of the first and third
syllable would seem to be Immaterial.

Saniyo Hiyewe 93

6.2.4.1. Primary stress on the second syllable and secondary stress on the
final syllable. Especially in these forms there Is a tendency for the
primary stressed vowel to be higher in the hierarchy than the secondary
stressed vowel .

/scnarcpc/ [sc . ' no . re . *pc ] 'grass'

/apaniyc/ [o . ' pa . ni • *yc ] 'ear'

/ahlta''o/ [a. "hi .to. ^'o] 'cover, top'

/rckakuwa/ [ le . 'ka.ku .=»iio] 'white ash'

6.2.4.2. Primary stress on third syllable and secondary stress on first
syllable.

/■c'iycni/ [''■c .'1 . 'yc .n i ] 'back'

/pescrouwc/ [*pc .sc . ' loii •"£] 'kind of bird'

/topc'lyc/ [^ta.pc. ''1 .ye] 'headband'

/ercscne/ [«e . le . 'se .ne] 'secretly, carefully'

5.2.5. Quinsyllabic Words

These are the least frequent, few non-affixed words of five syllables
having been found to date. The stress pattern appears to be primary stress
on the fourth syllable and secondary stress on the second.

/kcrcsiyanc/ [kc.* .re -si . 'yo .ne] 'kind of vine'
6.3. Phonological evidence for division into phonological words:

— One primary stress in a non-affixed word, and stress patterns
according to standard stress patterns.

/crasi o'l/ [e.'ra.si "o."'!] 'big + limiter'

(both primary stresses)
/scnarcpc sc/ [sc . ' na . re . pe "se] 'grass + instrument'
/wai aa'c/ ['"Qj 'Ba-'e] 'canoe + locative'

— CV patterns.

— usually juncture, but not always, especially in verbs, where phrase
intonation overrides this.

— potential pause.

7. Phonological Phrase Level

A phonological phrase is a stretch of speech which may be very brief
and bounded by a small pause, especially sentence-medially. At the
boundaries of a phonological sentence these pauses are longer. Phonological
phrases occurring nonfinal in the phonological sentence have nonfinal
intonation. Those occurring finally have final intonation.

The phonological sentence corresponds to the grammatical sentence.

From one to nine phonological phrases have been found to occur in one
sentence, and they may consist of only one word or a whole clause. The end
of the clause corresponds with the end of a phonological phrase though

94 Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages

several of these may occur in one clause. Usually the phonological phrase
does not divide within a grammatical phrase, but if it does, it is for the
purpose of highlighting some point within that phrase.

■o c.'ra.si] 'plenty of fish'
plenty

This is a short stative clause, being used as a short emphatic sentence at
a climax of the story. It is divided into two brief phonological phrases
separating the modifier, 'plenty' from the noun head to give extra emphasis
that there really were a great number of fish.

The features marking the end of a phonological phrase differ as to
whether the phonological phrase occurs finally or elsewhere in the
sentence. Further grammatical, sememic and phonological analysis may
suggest that some of these phonological phrase features are features of a
higher level .

Features when occurring finally in the sentence:

1. Fall in intonation on^ the last syllable of the last word. This

results in

2. Change of pitch of the last syllable of the last word to low pitch

falling below the level of low pitch. These two features probably
result from the influence of Intonation at sentence level.

3. There is no change in stress pattern of the last word.

Features marking the end of a phonological phrase not occurring sentence
finally:

1. Rise in intonation on the last syllable of the last word in the

phonological phrase. This results in

2. High pitch on the last syllable of the last word, and depending on

the standard stress and pitch pattern of that word, it may cause a
change .

3. The final syllable of the last word bears stress, which, like pitch,

may cause a change in the standard pattern of that word.

7.2 Intonation

The Intonation over a sentence is carried by the phonological
phrase(s) within that sentence, and in all except the last phonological
phrase in a sentence the intonation rises finally. Hence, because a
phonological phrase never crosses a clause boundary, the intonation rises
at the end of each clause, except the final clause in a sentence, when the
intonation falls. If there are several phonological phrases within a clause
the intonation over that clause will have a wave effect of several
successive rises, and if there are several clauses in a sentence the same
wave effect occurs throughout the sentence terminating in the final fall of
Intonation.

Downdrift of intonation over several clauses has been observed.
Observations to date show that this downdrift occurs in repetetive clauses
leading to the end of the sentence, and in a numerical phrase at the end of

Saniyo Hiyewe 95

a sentence when each element within the phrase forms a phonological phrase
with downdrift of intonation between each. It also seems to be a feature
of numerals that the phonological phrases do not have a rise of intonation,

but a fall, phrase-finally.

There seems to be no change of intonation pattern for questions,
either polar or content questions.

7.3. Rhythm

Rhythm is a feature of the phonological phrase. Some phonological
phrases consist of only one word, others of many words. Although the time
taken in speech to utter these phrases does vary, it is found that the
speech is considerably slower over the short phonological phrases and very
much faster over the longer ones .

8. Morphophonemics

There is a strong tendency towards the following.

8.1. Phoneme /e/ deletes before /i, ci, e, al , a, ou, u, o/

However, /e/ does not reduce if:

a) it is in a monosyllabic word

b) it comes finally in a phonological phrase

c) the speaker wants to emphasise that word.

/rc wc I holyc owerc, piya cte awerc''/ sounds like:

[re wej hoJyawcre, p i yctowcrc"'] 'Is he still sleeping or not?'

/fcnc wai sc lyel nc atahcina/ sounds like:

[fcnc wqj slyeJ nc atahejwo] 'You are about to leave by canoe'

/osciyc oseiya/ sounds like:

[aseJyoseJya] 'He grooved for sago grubs'

/hare uaasi wlye/ sounds like:

[haruaasl wiyc] 'He went up following the fish'

BUT:

/■c owe/ [»e owe] 'he cut wood' (monosyllabic word)

/one ctcrowa/ [one ctclowa]

'I will buy It' (final in phon. phr . )

/enc oyei nc atahciwa/ [cnoyftj ne ataheJwa]
'you are about to eat'

and:

/enc aye/ [ene aye]

'you ate sago jelly' (when sago jelly is emphatic)

96 Workpapers In Papua New Guinea Languages

8.2. Phoneme /a/ deletes before /a, a\ , e/

/nc fa aiyo/ [nc fqjya] 'you must come'
/hcta ape/ [hetape] 'this one'
/plyo ete owGre*>/ [pi yetancre"'] '...or not?'

8.3. Phoneme /!/ deletes before /i/ with rules for exceptions as In 1.

/sa'l Itoua/ [so'ltowa] 'It Is raining'

/sosu notosi none pasi lyclrona su, acs i i rowa/
Csosu notosi none pasiy^rona su , ncsi Iroaa]
'then, when night comes, we will go home'

8.4. If a verb stem ends In /c/, this vowel becomes /ci/ before verbal
suffixes /-yc/ and /-yci/, past and future tense respectively.

/sute/ 'carry!' (verb stem), [sutftjye] 'carried'

[sutejyftj] 'will carry'

/tolc/ 'think' (verb stem), [totejyc] 'thought'

CtoteJyeJ] 'win think'

8.5. Except for a few exceptions, /y/ occurs after front vowels and /«/
elsewhere In verbal tense suffixes.-*

/onuwc/ 'sat' /onuwel/ 'will sit'

/hoiyc/ 'slept' /hoiyel/ 'will sleep'

8.6. Morphophonemic changes are not represented in written material, and
the original phonological form is maintained, e.g. :

aselve oseiya and not aseivoseiva 'groove for sago grubs'

Reasons for this:

1. In some cases the morphological changes are optional.

2. If the original form is not maintained, long and unfamiliar words
are produced, which could hinder new readers.

9. Pronunciation of Loan Words

Most of the following loan words are Pidgin, as pronounced by those
who do not know Pidgin. Those who have learnt some Pidgin manage to
pronounce the consonant clusters and extra phonemes without much
difficulty.

* ED: It appears from further data that the past and future tense
suffixes may begin with /y/'s which become /■/ after a round vowel.
Thus, a /y/ occurs after /a/ (as in /oyc/ 'ate' and /ayel/
'will eat'). In addition, the present tense always begins with /■/ as in
/onuwo/ 'sits' and /hoiwa/ 'sleeps' .

Sanlyo Hiyewe

97

grls

'faf

[■ko'risc] or [gris]

rais

'rice-

[■IqJsc]

sop

' soap '

[ 'some]

sol

'salt-

[■sote]

mama

'mother'

['mama]

papa

' father '

[ ' papa]

balus

'airplane'

Iba' lusc]

Jisas

'Jesus'

['sisas] or ['sfsose]

Jon

•John'

[ "siyon]

helicopter

['hcli 'kopata]

pumpkin

[ ' pamc ■ k i ]

Workpapers in Papua Kew Guinea Languages
Volume 31

Five Ptionoa ogi caii S -t -u.ca.± e»s

Summer Institute of Linguistics
Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea